Message in a Bottle

I was in the bathroom the other day and looked down and noticed a little piece of paper sticking out of the toilet paper holder (there should be a little knob thingy hiding the hole.  No idea where that went).

I pulled it out and found a note penned in A's hand.   I read it, smiled knowing that my sweet daughter left the note for me to find and happy that I was the one to find it.

 I carefully rolled it back up and tucked it back into the hole.

Later that evening I was getting ready for bed and glanced at my soap dispenser and noticed another small piece of paper carefully placed in the bottle.

Carefully written, again in A's handwriting, was another verse.

Another smile at the special way my daughter chose to share with me.

These are two of her favorite verses.  :)  Since I need to use my soap, I didn't tuck this one back into the bottle (well until just now so I could take the picture ;)) but the note is resting in a special place to keep as a memory in years to come.  I didn't say anything to A. about finding her notes.  A few days after my discovery she casually asked if I had found anything that was hidden.  She was very happy to hear that, yes, I found the notes and found them to be so very special.  She just smiled. :)

The notes reminded me of a time about 6 years ago.  We were on a short trip to Carlsbad, CA for a time of family refreshment.  We had some empty water bottles and E. decided she was going to write a message, place it in the bottle and leave it someplace on the beach hoping just the right person would find it.

We headed down to the beach to hang out for a little bit, E. with bottle in hand.  She found a perfect spot to secure her bottle.  A place that wasn't too obvious but not so hidden it would never be found.  It was also up above the high tide mark. ;)  There was a breaker of rocks between the parking lot and the beach and she placed the bottle in a crack between the rocks.

We went about our playing and enjoying the cool ocean breezes while waiting to see if anyone would notice her bottle.  There weren't a lot of people there, so we thought chances were pretty good we'd never see if someone found it.  As it turned out, we didn't have to wait very long.  A couple of men had been surfing and were just finishing up about 5 minutes after we got there.  As they were preparing to head up to their cars one of the men noticed the bottle and said, "Hey, what's this?"  He opened up the note, read what was written and got a big grin on his face exclaiming, "This is great!  I'm keeping this."  Made my girls day!

What was the note that my young E. left?   A very simple yet powerful message.  She wrote, "Smile, God loves you."

Both my daughters at two different times did something so simple and yet so special that blessed the recipients.   How often do we get caught up in all the details of making things "right" or "perfect" or "enough" that we never get down to the business of actually blessing someone.

It really doesn't take much!   Have you blessed or been blessed by someone recently?  Please, share so we can all be blessed along with you!